


he would be prometheus, a fire-stealer

by outboxed (fallencrest)



Category: Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games (Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-08
Updated: 2014-06-08
Packaged: 2018-02-03 22:22:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1758457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fallencrest/pseuds/outboxed
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She's different from the other girls and he wants her. He wants her fire, her warmth, her glory; and he wants her dead.</p>
<p>(Written for a THG ficathon way back in 2012 and originally posted <a href="http://kolms.livejournal.com/18020.html?thread=273764#t273764">there</a>.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	he would be prometheus, a fire-stealer

There had been girls before. Some had been strong, some weak; some fierce, others desperately defeated. At the training centre they were supposed to devote everything to becoming perfect warriors and they did, mostly. They trained ceaselessly, fought each other, learnt to throw knives and which parts of the body were most vulnerable to assault. The dropout rate on the program was high, though no-one was allowed to leave. Some died in training, others killed themselves. Cato had slept with a girl the year before who'd drowned herself when she'd discovered Clove had been chosen as that year's female tribute. She'd been eighteen, there would never be another chance for her. Maybe he ought to feel bad for her but he can't make space for remorse: this is the life he has been chosen for and, after all, Clove was the better soldier. 

Besides, it doesn't mean anything here. Nothing means anything here, except The Games, except the glory of victory and the benefits it brings their district. A victory in The Games means a Harvest Festival, more food, a year of plenty, and it means a life of glory for the victor. That's all that means anything at the training centre, all that's ever meant anything to Cato. The girls - with their wicked smiles and soft skin, taut with muscle, - never meant anything. They were just a distraction - a distraction he could barely afford. 

But Katniss, Katniss is worse than any girl at the training centre because she's competition. Sure, the other girls could have been, in a way, if they'd proved themselves good enough, and if it had come down to just them in the arena. Sure, it was possible. But, even so, he'd never thought of them that way. And Katniss is different because he's never trained with her, only gets to see what she can do in a piecemeal kind of a way during training and still can't quite figure her out. 

He thinks she's mediocre, until he sees her shoot. And when he sees her shoot he has to wonder because none of the girls at the training centre back in 2 could shoot like that - none of the boys, either. And he knows they don't have training centres in District 12. But she _volunteered_ and they don't volunteer in 12, either. 

They'd all joked about her, about Katniss, him and the other careers, when she'd arrived. They'd called her weak because she was sentimental - because she'd come like a lamb to the slaughter out of love of her little sister. Clove had talked about gutting her like a fish but she'd still fallen silent with the rest of them when she saw what Katniss could do - saw her training score. 

And, god, if she isn't just the most fascinating thing Cato's ever seen. She's a challenge and he wants to kill her, wants to see her blood bleed out all over his hands because he's beaten her - the girl everyone is talking about, the girl who was on fire. He wants that, her fire, her warmth, her glory. Only when he looks at her he also thinks about the other girls, the way it felt to lose himself in someone else just for a while and he can't let himself want her that way but he can't stop himself from wanting, either. 

In the end, it has to be a bloody communion, a murder, he knows, but he thinks that maybe that will be enough of a victory. 

He wonders if he will be loved or hated, when he kills the girl who was on fire. But he never gets a chance to find out.


End file.
